England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick has confirmed that young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir is fit and available to bowl on Day 5 of the Lord’s Test against India. He added that the team is confident in their chances of claiming the six remaining Indian wickets to secure victory.
Bashir sustained an injury on Day 3 while attempting a low caught-and-bowled off a powerful shot from Ravindra Jadeja. He left the field immediately, with Joe Root finishing the over. Despite the setback, Bashir returned to bat on Day 4, scoring two runs before being dismissed by Washington Sundar.
Earlier in the day, the ECB stated that Shoaib Bashir was cleared to bat and was expected to be available to bowl in the second innings. However, he did not feature in the 17.4 overs England bowled during the final session of Day 4. Addressing the media post-play, Trescothick shared an update on the 21-year-old’s condition.
“He’s fit to bowl, was ready to ball. I think it comes in the regulation – he can come on to bowl as and when he’s needed, and then if he’s not bowling at any stage, he can then come back off because it’s obviously an external blow. So, should we need him, he will be ready to bowl.”
“Hopefully six wickets in the first hour” –Trescothick backs England to seal Lord’s Test
Bowlers ruled Day 4 at Lord’s as Sundar claimed four, while Bumrah and Siraj took two each. Ahead of Day 5, Trescothick backed England‘s pacers to use wobble seam effectively and grab the remaining six wickets.
“The majority of what we’ve seen is there is variation in bounce from quick bowlers – people who can bowl balls that hit-the-seam wobbling [delivery]. The wobble seam delivery is a kind of a dangerous ball on this sort of pitch. With the variation, I think you see a bit more bounce bowling from the Nursery end than you see from bowling from Pavilion End.”
“Maybe a bit more use of the slope where it angles back towards the stump. So that’s hopefully what we’ll see again tomorrow. Hopefully it will seam everywhere and we’ll get six wickets in the first hour,” he added.
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